There is a saying that goes, ÒYour Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose.Ó Memory is a beautiful and amazing feature that our brains are capable of, and our memory is something that NO one can take that away from us? Right? Wrong.. There is one person that can remove everything, wipe the slate clean ÉLong term and Short term memory are gone. Encoding, Storage and Retrieval become impossible. EverythingÉ.Gone. Back in 2004 my grandmother was diagnosed with AlzheimerÕs, and slowly but surely her memory faded from her. After 2 years the disease took away her ability to cook, clean, sew and do all the things needed to function on her own. 3 years went by, and she could still recognize her kids and grandkids but she couldnÕt remember any names. After about 4 years with the deteriorating disease she lost so many brain cells that she couldnÕt remember her own name. And just before she died earlier this year one of the last things to go was the ability to swallow, she actually forgot how to eat, move and even open her eyes.
Now when she did go, it was a blessing. It was easy to let her go. But what if it didnÕt have to happen that way. What if this disease was curable or at least manageable?
Well, many doctors and scientists believe that AlzheimerÕs can be cured, right along with diabetes, ParkinsonÕs, and even cancer.
After President Obama took office earlier this year, it didnÕt take him long to remove some of the restrictions, which were holding researchers back from finding cures for some of these diseases. On March 9, of this year an Executive Order by Obama made federal funding once again legal for stem-cell research. Federal funding is crucial because it attracts the best and the brightest researchers from across the nation, which wasnÕt happening since 2001. It also opened the doors to around 400,000 embryonic stem cells that have been frozen and going to waste since 2001.
These 400,000 stem cells are the building blocks for any advancement that is made in our search for a cancer cure or for other debilitating diseases. Unfortunately, however there is a problem. These 400,000 stem cells wont last very long, because our scientists are not allowed to obtain all the cells that they need. There are many facilities in our country fighting for these unspecialized cells and as advancements are made, the supply will run short.
Now IÕm not the only person that has lost a family member or a friend to an awful disease like Alzheimers, some of you may have. But we already have the know how to create an unlimited amount of stem cells, and now our government, our nation of change, needs to give our brilliant scientists and researchers the go ahead to ensure that we never run out of our stem cell supply.
SATISFACTION
The way that this can happen is in fact very simple.. In-vitro babies, or test tube babies, are created outside the mother in a petri dish by fertilizing female egg cells with sperm cells. This method, which is viewed by some as, ÒPlaying GodÓ has gradually become accepted around the world and according to BBC news, over 3 million babies have been born by means of in-vitro fertilization. In-vitro fertilization has helped our hopeful mothers and in my plan, in-vitro fertilization could help our hopeful grandmothers.
My plan (FIRST SLIDE) encompasses this same technique by harvesting multiple eggs from thousands of egg donors, which would then be fertilized, and within 5 days the embryonic stem cells removed, without harming anyone. The reason I mention Òthat we will not be harming anyoneÓ is because one issue hereÉ
and one of the main reason why we are not using this method already is because some religious and political groups, along with pro-life activistÕs believe that by removing these cells, scientists would be destroying a human life. They argue that life begins not 2-3 weeks after conception but actually at the moment of conception. Dr. Mark Hill and his team at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia have created a 23 Stage table showing the development of an embryo. If we take look at the first 9 stages
POWER POINT
Stage 1 shows a newly Fertilized Zygote
In Stage 2 the cells have split and you have a 4-cell embryo
Stage 3 is the view of a mass of stem cells. At this time there are approximately 51 stem cells in the cell mass
Lets skip ahead now to Stage 7, where the formation of an embryonic disc has just occurred.
In Stage 8 you can see that the stem cell have begun to migrate and the embryo has become more elongated. Somewhere between here and Stage 9 the embryo has just taken the step from a mere group of cells, to what starts to look like a living being.
This picture shows the very first sign of becoming a human being.
Ok letÕs go back to stage 3 for a minute. The run down of what IÕm proposing in my plan is that during this stage, just 4-5 days after fertilization, these stem cells would be removed for further research. And as I noted earlier, this could be done millions of times and would ensure that we never run out of our supply. However it must be noted, and be made very clear that no one is to allow for this embryo to grow longer than a week before the valuable cells are removed. It is crucial that no embryos created for scientific use, ever reach this stage (Next slide) To ensure that they wont, the federal government, along with the National Institute of Health, would ensure that researchers keep meticulous records on all the cells that they handle, and harsh penalties would be handed out to anyone not obeying these rules.
Visualization: ThatÕs itÉ.
I want everyone to think for a minute.
What if tonight as your kids were coming home, they were side swiped by a drunk driver and were paralyzed from the neck down. Or what if someone you know was suddenly diagnosed with diabetes, something that today, they would have to live with forever?
Now know that stem cells research is on its way to helping both of these victims. It is thought that stem cells, injected into the pancreas of someone with diabetes, will rebuild the damaged pancreas cells and continue to create insulin again. Something even more spectacular, scientists believe that they can help and even heal someone with a spinal cord injury by replacing damaged spinal cord cells with stem cells, which will become spinal cord cells.
This plan can work! And this plan is good, for everyone.
Now that you have seen that this plan is good there is one thing for you to do that can help.
This is the address to the (LAST SLIDE) National Institute of Health: they want your comments, and they need your feedback on how you feel about this plan. Please do your part, to ensure that scientists can use in-vitro fertilization to do more good for our country, our kids, our parents and our grandparents.
If we act today, we just might, in our own lifetime, find a cure for cancer.
Thank you very much.